


Snow means freedom

by I_hate_mages_No_you_dont



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Fenders, Pre-Relationship, Snow, VERY pre-relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 22:53:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8772592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_hate_mages_No_you_dont/pseuds/I_hate_mages_No_you_dont
Summary: Fenris wakes up one morning and hears… nothing. Not the by now familiar scribble of a feather on paper or coughing from the room next to his. What he finds instead is something entirely new to him. Snow(by kittenmage)





	

**Author's Note:**

> My first contribution to our #lyriumchristmas challenge. See the Challenge or our tumblr for more details. If you want to join, please do so! We're very happy about every author, artist and reader :)  
> Enjoy this.  
> I hadn't planned to set it in Thedas, but somehow it happened. <3

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since Fenris had offered Anders a spare room in his mansion. Because temperatures where falling steadily and that dumb mage would freeze to death in that sewer of his. At least that was what Fenris had told himself. Anders had stared at Fenris, as if he had lost his mind but accepted the offer with a very quiet “Thank you!”. The reactions of their friends, though, had been a lot more vocal. Varric had started to laugh and asked when they would be invited to the wedding. “Never!”, hissed Fenris. Aveline had simply raised an eyebrow and propositioned to officially transfer the mansion to Fenris. At last. Isabela had thrown a ton of dirty comments at elf and mage. Mostly about “keeping each other warm”. Merrill had been so overjoyed that Fenris cared about Anders’ wellbeing and rescued him from Darktown that she had flung herself at Fenris and gave the startled warrior a tight hug. And Hawke had raised his glass to perform a toast on the newly found friendship between Fenris and Anders.

For it oddly enough was friendship. After years of arguing and name calling both mage and elf had grown tired of fighting. And with being weary of throwing insults back and forth, they had started to listen to each other instead. Surprisingly enough this had very quickly led to a degree of understanding for each other, that neither had at first thought possible.

Now the mage was living in the room next to Fenris. Well more like occasionally using the room. Anders still spent most of the time in the clinic, freezing off his fingers while tending to those even less fortunate than him. And once he was back in the mansion, he mostly just lit a fire and started to work on the manifesto. No matter how late at night. The last two weeks Fenris got gradually accustomed to the sound of a quill scratching over parchment. It seemed as if the mage never slept. Because no matter when Fenris woke up he could hear the mage write.

Just not now.

Fenris peeled off the blankets on top of him. There were at least three already and he had thought of buying another one. Damn it was cold in Kirkwall! As the elf left his room to investigate the lack of noise next doors, he almost bumped into Anders in the door frame. The mage was sporting a grin that could equal a drunk Merrill and he seemed just as giddy.

“Fenris! Good you’re up! You have to see this!” And without even waiting for a reply, Anders grabbed Fenris’ hand and dragged him along, down the stairs and through the hallway towards the door to the small garden in the courtyard. “Mage, what in the name of…” Fenris started to protest, but as Anders opened the door he was blinded by too much light. Or rather too much white. The tiny garden was covered under a blanket of a white substance. It seemed to be thick but not really heavy, solid but soft. And the white stuff still kept falling from the sky in tiny flakes. “Is that…?”

“Snow!” Anders yelled full of joy and was already standing in the middle of the narrow courtyard, his face beaming with happiness. “Don’t say you really never saw snow before?!” Anders narrowed his eyes and opened them in surprise when Fenris only reacted with confusion. “So there really is no snow in Tevinter?” The mage looked shocked. “No.” Fenris’ reply was brusque. He wore nothing more than a shirt and pants and his bare feet started to freeze.

Anders didn’t seem to care for the cold. But that idiot mage had been living in Darktown for years, he probably was used to feeling cold by now. To Fenris’ biggest surprise, Anders scooped up a hand full of snow and held it out towards him. “Do you know what this means then?” The mage’s look had shifted a little. It was more serious now. Serious but soft. Fenris let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s too cold for rain?” The elf raised an eyebrow in annoyance. Would the mage come to a point so he could go back in?

The mage, though, laughed and shook his head. “This”, he said and let the snow fall back to the ground, “means freedom! It means that we are not trapped. That we can go wherever we want. This is not Tevinter or the Circle. This is the place we chose to live in. This!” Anders’ arms swung round as he pointed at the snow-covered garden. “This means we are free to go outside. Whenever we want to, how often we want to. And if you’re cold, you can go inside or travel far away without a Magister or Templar to tell you otherwise!” And he laughed. A soft laughter that was both sad and happy at the same time.

“Do you always react so strongly to the weather?” Fenris had crossed his arms in front of his chest, a soft blush spreading over his cheeks. His answer might not show it, but he appreciated what Anders had tried to say. What Anders had tried to show him. That he was a free man. They both were.

“You’re such a grump, Fenris!” Anders chuckled and suddenly ducked down with a grin. “Are you ready for a challenge? But I have to warn you, I’m Ferelden, I know how to stand my ground in a snow ball fight!” And before Fenris opened his mouth to protest that he was cold and that Anders couldn’t be serious, the first snowball hit him at the shoulder. “Mage! This means war!” Within seconds Fenris ran after the chuckling man, throwing uneven snowballs at him. How can Anders stand to touch this stuff?! It’s ice cold!

But at least Anders seemed happy. Fenris couldn’t help it. He wanted to indulge that carefree, sentimental idiot in front of him as long as possible. Before he turned back into the mage that seemed haunted by too many worries for others. And if it took snow to achieve that goal. So be it.

“If I freeze to death, it’s on you, mage!”, Fenris shouted and threw another snow ball at Anders with a grin. A grin that was mirrored in the other man’s face.

Well. Ok. Snow wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
